Hadjimitsis, Diofantos G.
Χατζημιτσής, Διόφαντος
Diofantos G. Hadjimits is a Full Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics. He was the
Chair of the Department of Civil Eng. and Geomatics from 2011 to 2015. He is a board member of ‘The
Cyprus Agency of Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Education’which has been established by
law on November 2015. He is also the Head and founder of the Remote Sensing & Geo‐Environment Lab.
Diofantos is also the director of the ‘ERATOSTHENES’ Research Centre at the Cyprus University of Technology
(CUT). He has more than 450 publications in journals, conference proceedings, and chapters in books and
monographs in the field of remote sensing and GIS. He has supervised 13 PhD researchers in the area of
remote sensing and 140 bachelor and master final year projects and dissertations. He is the co‐coordinator
of MSc in Geoinformatics and Geospatial Technologies at CUT. He teaches remote sensing, earth observation
modules. His research group consisted of more than 40 researchers and is the largest research group at the
University. Since 1999, he has participated in more than 65 funded projects. Since his appointment at the
CUT (2007), he participated in more than 55 research projects with funding sources from FP6, FP7, Horizon
2020, ECHO, Eureka, Life +, MED, Marie Curie, ERASMUS+, COST, ESA, EC regional funds, national funds such
as the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (CRPF) and industry. Diofantos has been a coordinator of
more than 25 research projects.
Currently he is the coordinator of the ‘ATHENA: Remote Sensing Science Centre for Cultural Heritage’ funded
from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The ‘ATHENA’ project
(www.athena2020.eu) aims to establish a Centre of Excellence in the field of Remote Sensing for Cultural
Heritage in the areas of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage through the development of an enhanced
knowledge base and innovative methods. He is the Coordinator of the ‘HORZION 2020 Twinning Project
‘EXCELSIOR’/ ERATOSTHENES: EXcellence Research Centre for Earth SurveiLlance and
Space‐Based MonItoring Of the EnviRonment (www.excelsior2020.eu). The EXCELSIOR project aims also of
creating an inspiring environment for conducting basic and applied research and innovation in the areas of
the integrated use of remote sensing and space‐based techniques for monitoring the environment.
Environment has been recognized by the Smart Specialization Strategy of Cyprus as the first horizontal
priority for future growth of the island. The ERATOSTHENES CoE – with its expertise and infrastructure could
be a hub for the earth observation activities in the eastern Mediterranean area due to the key geostrategic
position of Cyprus
He has significant experience in research projects that include remote sensing, GIS, field spectroscopy.
Diofantos worked in the past at the University of Surrey (UK), University of Southampton (UK), and Frederick
University (CY) and as a managing director in a consultancy company working in the fields of remote sensing
and GIS. He has been worked as a consultant for managing town‐planning projects with budget cost of more
than 40 million Euros. He is the member of the National Experts appointed by the Cyprus Government for
investigating the potential of Cyprus to join the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2009. He appointed from
the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation as a national delegate/contact point for the FP7 framework in
the ‘SPACE’ theme since 2011. He was the President of the Pafos Civil Engineers Association from 2003 to
2014. He has been nominated and elected as SPIE Senior member 2014 for his achievements in remote
sensing.
He is the member of the editorial team of the ‘Open Geosciences’ and MDPI Remote Sensing. In 2010 he was
the co‐chair of the EuroMED conference. The publication record of the PI includes 1 Ph.D. dissertation, 1
MPhil, 1 book as co‐author, 1 book as editor/author (‘Remote Sensing of Environment: Integrated
Approaches, 2013), 450 publications in journal and conference papers‐72 refereed journal papers‐ 270
refereed papers in books of proceedings, 85 technical reports, 8 chapters in book, 3 proceedings volume
(edited), 20 monographs etc. Diofantos gave more than 25 invited talks.